1,500 teachers in metro area likely to lose jobs

About 1,500 metro Atlanta teachers are expected to get the bad news that their contracts have not been renewed.

Cobb County plans to cut 579 teaching positions to cope with a $137 million deficit. The district plans to tell teachers by May 15 whether their teaching contracts will be renewed for fall.  Fulton expects to cut 200 to 250 teachers in the next week. Clayton has told 312 teachers their contracts would not be renewed, Gwinnett 150, DeKalb 105 and Atlanta 33.

New and veteran teachers alike are worried. Teachers with under four years' experience don't have the right to a hearing on the reasons for their non-renewal, said Tim Callahan, a spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

Most districts also give teachers the chance to resign instead of accepting a non-renewal of their contract, which carries some stigma. A resignation, however, means the teacher cannot collect unemployment,  Callahan said. Jay Dillon, spokesman for Cobb County schools, said it's up to the Department of Labor to decide questions of unemployment.

In the world of education, non-renewal of a teaching contract is like a scarlet letter pinned on a teacher. It’s usually a signal that something is seriously wrong and many districts won’t interview them. Gwinnett County’s teacher application asks applicants if they have ever been non-renewed or if they have resigned in lieu of non-renewal, the district’s spokeswoman said.

Cynthia Wentz, 44, was teaching middle school English in Gwinnett County two months ago when she was called to the principal’s office and told her contract would not be renewed. She was approaching the end of her third year with Gwinnett.

“I was just stunned,” Wentz said. The principal would not give a reason and told Wentz she had about an hour to decide whether she was going to resign or accept the non-renewal, Wentz said.

“Now when a teacher accepts a non-renewal, it’s like saying you accept that you’ve done something totally awful,” Wentz said. “Putting non-renew on a job application – it marks you as a bad teacher. It’s sort of assumed to be performance or attitude or interaction with kids. It’s completely negative.”

Wentz attended a career fair in Walton County in March where signs on the front windows said they would not interview “non-renewals.”

“I had always wanted to be a teacher,” Wentz said. “I’m a single mom and I went back to school and finished college and got a master’s degree in teaching so I could have the career I always wanted,” she said.

She tried to explain her situation: Her evaluations were good and the non-renewal was more of a budget decision on the school’s part.

“I should have heard from them by now,” Wentz said of Walton County schools. “I did not get a call back.” In addition to bearing the mark of non-renewal, Wentz faced competition from 500 other teachers at the fair, she said. “That was mind-blowing and disheartening,” she said.

.

Veteran teachers are worried as well, with some receiving poor evaluations for the first time in their careers, said Susan Dietz, co-chair of the Gwinnett County Association of Educators.

The number of those recommended for non-renewal nearly tripled in Gwinnett County from 55 last year to 150 this year. Non-renewals also rose in Clayton and DeKalb counties because of tighter budgets, district officials said. In Fulton County traditional performance-based non-renewals will be about 20 this year, spokeswoman Allison Toller said. But budget-related cuts will result in 200 to 250 teachers receiving non-renewals this year.

“We’ve never seen this before,” Toller said.

Cobb County’s 65 non-renewals are just part of the overall 579 teaching positions that will be cut this year. For example, all certified employees on limited contracts and all certified part-time employees will not be renewed, according to a school board memo.

"We had teachers crying the day they cut the part-time teachers," Jackson said.  Late last month Griffin Middle School lost two part-time gifted teachers and two media specialists, a part-time administrator and a Spanish teacher, Jackson said. The school also lost a new social studies teacher who had a limited contract because he started teaching after the start of the school year, she said.

"Our principal called them in personally and told each one of them," Jackson said.

Cobb will make further cuts based on performance and seniority, Dillon said. The first to go will be teachers with overall unsatisfactory evaluations, then those with low ratings in certain performance areas and finally those with less seniority, Dillon said. The cuts will be classified as non-renewals, he said. Employees will be given the option to resign. Written documentation will reflect that the non-renewal was part of a reduction in force which might help reduce the stigma, he said.

Morale is as low as ever, and it’s not only in Gwinnett, Dietz said. Teachers are planning to get out of education because of the way they’re being treated, she said. “It is not nice what is going on in this county,” she said. “It is not nice what is going on all over.”

The Professional Association of Georgia Educators had asked the Legislature to create a new type of dismissal category to distinguish traditional non-renewals from non-renewals motivated by budget cuts. The association asked for a category called “non-renewal due to decrease in state funding,” Callahan said. “That way they would not have that stigma.”

The Legislature did not go for the new category, Callahan said.

The decision of whether to resign or accept a non-renewal has been presented to Jill Ham two times in as many years. Ham, 31, is a teaching specialist who helps middle school students who are struggling to meet everyday academic standards in Jackson County.

“They’ll tell you you’re being non-renewed because there’s not enough money," she said.

Ham said she would not qualify for unemployment benefits if she resigned, so she decided to take the non-renewal, even though it will tarnish her teaching career.

“I need unemployment to support my family,” Ham said. “We would lose our house. We would lose our cars. No one is hiring.”

Sharon Malcom, 53, was a teacher in Atlanta public schools who was not renewed last year.

“I can sympathize with what they are going through. All my evaluations were satisfactory,” said Malcom, 53, who worked three years for Atlanta Public Schools as a middle school English teacher. In her second year, a student with a good discipline record jumped on her, breaking Malcom’s hand in three places.

“When it was time for my tenure year, they said they couldn’t use me anymore,” Malcom said.

She lost her job, which paid about $55,000, at the end of the 2008 school year. It was hard to find another job because of the non-renewal, she said.

“I still haven’t gotten over it,” Malcom said. “It destroys your whole reputation as a teacher. You don’t know what they’re saying when another system called for a reference. I’ve applied to so many places.”

She now works as a substitute teacher for $95 per day in another school district.

Malcom described the humiliation, betrayal and dread she felt when she got her non-renewal.

She was handed an envelope, believing there was a contract inside. Instead, there was a letter.

“I cannot describe the feeling that came over me,” she said. “It was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, like impending doom.”

“I didn’t know the repercussions,” she said. “When you get a non-renewal, it just ruins your whole career.”

Staff writers Pat Fox, Chris Quinn and Megan Matteucci contributed to this article.

Teacher contracts

State law requires school districts to inform teachers if they have a contract by May 15.

Georgia school districts are not bound by any overarching rules on how to conduct layoffs, but they must abide by any written policies their district may have, said Tim Callahan, a spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

Teachers with fewer than four years of experience in the school district may have their contracts "non-renewed" without reason.

Teachers with "tenure," or more than four years' experience in that system, can appeal non-renewals.